The always interesting Nate Hoffelder over at the Digital Reader reports that publishing conglomerate Bonnier is starting up an ebook subscription service in Sweden.  Yes, in Sweden.  Since the worldwide pool of people who truly care about ebook subscriptions apparently isn't small enough, Bonnier has decided to narrow the field even more and stick to their home country. 

After I wrote this, I found myself tapping the face of my watch to see how many seconds had passed because I wanted to make sure Bonnier's little venture hadn't already failed before I could hit "Publish".  UPDATE: Nope, not yet.  But keep checking your watches...

According to multiple sources, ebook subscription service Oyster is closing, with most of its staff decamping to Google.  Hopefully, Google has better things to do with their money than support an ebook subscription service.  But maybe not.  They are, after all, managing to utterly fail at selling books in a way that genuinely competes with Amazon.

As I've commented elsewhere on this blog, ebook subscriptions are not a viable business in the long-term.  Yes, Amazon's program is trucking along...and costing successful authors as much as 50% or more of their income.  Obviously, those authors losing money are NOT happy.  Even if customer apathy doesn't kill...

In this March 11, 2015 blog entry, Michal Kozlowski at the Good E Reader blog takes a look at the increasing success of episodic fiction on Amazon's ebook subscription service, Kindle Unlimited.  Although the focus of Michael's blog entry is the KU program, I would argue that the same trends are likely occuring on rival platforms such as Scribd and Oyster.

Niche markets such as children's books or computer books are a logical fit for the subscription ebook model.  So is episodic fiction.  The question people should be asking is why we need a dedicated marketplace just for subscription fiction.  Based on reports by authors and some industry bloggers, authors are being hurt by the subscription model and the only...

When I read this headline, my initial reaction was, "so what?"

Ever since ebook subscriptions were introduced I have asserted that they are not a money-making business model...except for the retailers offering the subscriptions, and to a somewhat lesser extent, the publishers themselves.  In fact, only self-published content creators with a solid fan base might make enough money to live on with the subscription model. 

As of right now that is a big "maybe". 

If recent accounts from top-earning authors on Kindle are to be believed, their income under Kindle Unlimited is taking a real beating.  Another recent story on Digital Book World examined the ebook subscription models...